A series of poorly understood occurrences, known only as ‘The Event’, took place in the year 2015 that reshaped humanity — as well as the entire face of the planet — forevermore. Eleven years later a Russian man emerges from his underground shelter — where he had been holed up ever since he was fifteen — aiming to explore what remains of the world above, and also to search for answers. What he finds is a barren and sterile world, a place where — for the few survivors still hanging on — the definition of what it means to be human is hanging in the balance of a desperate fight to survive.
Thus goes the setup to The Seed, a project from The Misery Developers — whom previously released the famous ‘Misery’ mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. — which aims to be a deeply psychological Visual Novel. Proclaiming to have over fifty different endings, the course one takes through the story will be heavily influenced by the decisions they make and how they choose to prioritize their survival. What will be the most important things to you in a world stripped virtually barren: Your social standing and the help of others, the ability to fight off any threat that might come your way, or the bare necessities of life?
While The Seed is going to primarily be driven by first-person present-tense prose — letting the most powerful graphics processor ever, your imagination, create the imagery — The Misery Developers have great plans for their game’s background audio. Under the assumption that ambient sounds have failed if they ever perform a noticeable loop, the omnipresent hollowing wind in The Seed will be procedurally generated at all times. Subtle changes in the howling wind’s form will serve as a warning to players of upcoming weather changes, as well as the possible arrival of far worse potential disasters.
The Misery Developers have already invested copious amounts of their own time and resources towards the creation of The Seed, but have finally hit an impasse where more capital must be obtained if they are ever to succeed. To that end they have recently approached Kickstarter asking for £15,000, an amount equal to what they themselves have already put forward, so that their dark Visual Novel might one day reach fruition. Things have been looking up for the project so far, with nearly two thirds of the asking total already secured, but that still leaves about £4,000 to be raised within the next eleven days.
Currently a mere pledge of just £5 will secure your very own launch day copy of The Seed’s first act (out of a planned trilogy), a reward which you may furthermore receive on any platform of your choosing (including iPads). However, those whom donate even more to the cause can receive premium rewards such as: development art books, digital soundtrack downloads, BETA Tester access, the chance to design a chapter, and more. Perhaps the most amazing reward of all — though — is one where you will spend a two day meeting with the developers in Poland, after which they will strive to make a plot important NPC designed around yourself!
So remember to act fast if you want to see The Seed — which claims to run upon the most sophisticated graphics processor ever designed: your imagination — become a true digital reality, for the project’s rapidly approaching deadline will transpire on April 17th.